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One year later, over 300 posts,
over 200,000 words added to this blog, today we are finishing up our journey through the C. S.
Lewis Bible. I know I did not share much
about the whole book of Revelation but chose instead to focus on a couple of
passages. Therefore, let me highly recommend Michael Wilcock’s book, The Message of Revelation. After many
years of studying and reading about this difficult book, I have found Wilcock’s
work to be the most helpful. So what of C. S. Lewis and the
Bible? I really like the Afterword to the book. It is a snippet of Lewis’
perspective on the Bible taken from Reflections
on the Psalms. I can think of no more fitting way to close out our yearlong
journey of reading and thinking on Scripture…. For us these
writings are “holy,” or “inspired,” or, as St. Paul says, “the Oracles of God.”
But this has been understood in more than one way, and I must try to explain
how I understand it, at least so far as the Old Testament is concerned. I have
been suspected o…

Monastery of St. John the Theologian, Patmos After this I looked, and there in heaven
a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a
trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after
this.” At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with
one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and
carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.
Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are
twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads.
Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder,
and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven
spirits of God; and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of
glass, like crystal. Around the throne, and on each side of
the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the
first liv…

We read in Revelation 12 that,
“The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she
might be taken care of for 1,260 days.” I believe the secret message for
us in this is that in the desert of persecution God prepares for us a place of
protection. The 1,260 days represent a period of time during which Satan is
persecuting the Church. 1,260 days is three and a half years. Seven years would
be a complete period of suffering. Thus, 1,260 days represents a complete
period of suffering cut short by half. This shows us that even in suffering God
is merciful to us. God will not let us endure suffering longer than we can
bear. (See 1 Corinthians 10:13.) God’s protection will last as long as Satan’s persecution lasts. Notice that God prepares a place
for the woman to be taken care of. The desert represents a place of spiritual
refuge and protection from Satan. Because the Lord aided the woman’s escape into
the desert, we can be sure that God will provide security for us.…

Michael & Satan by Guido Reni As we saw yesterday, the second secret message
of Revelation 12 is that there are forces of evil set on the destruction of the
Church. The moment we become witnesses
for Jesus Christ, the moment we try to bring him forth to the world, we become
targets, targets for Satan. Satan will try everything in his power to stop us
from being witnesses for Jesus. The story is told of a meeting
that Satan had with some of his head demons. They were talking about how they
might stop the Christians. One of the demons suggested, “Why don’t we try to
get them to believe that God does not exist?” Satan replied, “No, they won’t
fall for that. They have seen too much of the evidence of God’s existence in
their own lives and in creation.” Another demon suggested, “Why
don’t we try to convince them that God doesn’t really care about moral
behavior?” But Satan replied, “No, that won’t work either, because they have their
conscience and the Bible to tell them that God does car…

Mary & The Dragon on the ceiling of
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, D.C. In Revelation 12, the next sign that appears in
heaven is an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven
crowns on his heads. This dragon sweeps a third of the stars out of the sky and
flings them to the earth. He stands in front of the woman to devour her child
the moment it is born. Who is this dragon? We do not
have to do much searching to find the answer. John tells us in Revelation 12:9
that “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil,
or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” Thus, the dragon represents Satan.
The seven heads represent the tremendous authority of Satan. The ten horns
represent his great strength. The seven crowns represent the power and kingdoms
of this world over which he rules. The stars that plunged to earth with him are
the angels who fell with Satan and became his demons. According to Hebrew…

Who are the woman’s offspring in
Revelation 12? We read that the rest of her offspring are those who obey God’s
commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. The woman’s offspring are
Christians. This story is, as I have already
suggested, a highly symbolic way of telling the Christmas story, the story of
Christ’s birth to Mary. However, this story also contains a message, an
application for us. I believe that message is that just as Mary gave birth to
the Messiah, so we, the Church, must continue to bring forth Christ to the
world. How do we do that? How do we, as
Christians, bring forth Christ to the world? I think we do it in the simple way
we learned in preschool…Show and Tell. To bring forth Christ to the world we
have to show him to the world in our lives and we have to tell about him with
our lips. John Trent tells this story…. When I led a Young
Life group, I did my best to round up kids who really needed to hear the gospel
when we went to summer camp. Mark was one of those kid…

Here is the last telling of the
Christmas story in the Bible. It comes to us in Revelation 12:1-6. I believe we
find a secret message encoded there. It is a message of Christ’s love…. A great and
wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon
under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried
out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in
heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns
on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them
to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give
birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth
to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And
her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the
desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for
1,260 days. You may …

As far as I can remember, I have only
preached from the book of Revelation once. Since we have now come to the last book of the Bible in our year-long study,
and since it is also Christmas, and because the one sermon I have preached from
Revelation is entitled “The Last Telling of the Christmas Story,” I thought I
would share it here with you over these last days of 2014 as we read through
Revelation together. Here is the beginning of the sermon from Revelation 12:1-6…. A parent tells the following story about
attending a Winter Pageant at her son’s school: Each December, I vowed to make Christmas
a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential
obligations—extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even
overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the
precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten
that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he’d bee…

The Apostle Jude by Anthony Van Dyck The author of this letter calls himself,
“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James”. The mention of James
has led to some speculation. Is this a reference to James the half-brother of
Jesus and leader in the Early Church? If so, then Jude is not only the brother
of James but also the half-brother of Jesus. Jude or Judas or Judah is
mentioned as the name of one of Jesus’ brothers. (See Mark 6:3 and Matthew
13:55.) Therefore, some scholars have thought that this letter was written by
that Jude. However, if this is the case, why does Jude not simply come out and
say that he is the half-brother of Jesus? Perhaps he does not do so because he
does not think himself worthy of that familial connection. He is, after all,
just a servant of Jesus the Messiah. The strike against this letter being
written by Jude is that it appears to be one of the later letters of the New
Testament, written, most likely, after the generation in which Jude, the
bro…

There are a few things that
strike me in reading 3 John. First off, this and 2 John are much more like real
letters than the other letters of the New Testament which are, in some cases,
much more like theological statements or sermons. 3 John covers a variety of
topics in a short span just as we would if we were writing a letter to a friend
today. We do not know who Gaius was any
more than we can be certain who John the Elder was. However, that does not keep
us from benefitting from the contents of this letter. The first thing that strikes me
is the statement: “I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in
good health, just as it is well with your soul.” If someone prayed for your
physical health to match your spiritual health, would you be in good shape, or
on the point of death? This is an important factor to consider. Many people
today spend much more time focused on improving their physical health while
many focus little if at all on improving their spiritual health. B…

In the opening verse, the author
of this letter names himself as “John the Elder”. Some scholars think that this
letter, along with 1 John, the Gospel of John, 3 John, and Revelation, were all
written by the Apostle John, the disciple of Jesus, and one of the sons of
Zebedee. Other scholars tend to think that 2 John, and maybe all of the
above-mentioned books, were written by one or more of a group of disciples that
grew up around the Apostle John. This group is often referred to as the
Johannine community. Whatever the truth may be about
the authorship of this letter, the Early Church thought it important enough to
include this brief bit of correspondence in the canon of the New Testament. The
question is: why? Why include this letter when it repeats, however briefly,
some of the same themes as those which appear in 1 John, themes like truth and
love? I think part of the answer may be conveyed in the following story…. A mutual friend used to work on
the staff of Fourth Presbyterian Chu…

About Me

is a pastor and author. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama from the University of California at San Diego and a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. Will is the Pastor of Stowe Community Church in Stowe, Vermont. He and his wife Becky have been married since 1988 and have three sons: James, Jonathan, and Joshua.